Prof Oliver Pybus elected Fellow of the Royal Society

Huge congratulations to Professor Oliver Pybus, who has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. 

Oliver is an evolutionary biologist who is internationally renowned for his leadership in the field of phylodynamics. He invented key tools for inferring population dynamics from gene sequences and demonstrated first that important epidemiological parameters can be estimated from pathogen genomes. He continues to develop phylodynamic theory and has extended its application to immunology, cell biology and ecology. He has led large, international collaborations that use genetic data to reveal the transmission of past and current epidemics. His studies have repeatedly provided conceptual and empirical insights into pathogen dynamics that were unavailable from the analysis of traditional epidemiological data.

He completed his DPhil at the University of Oxford in 2000 after obtaining a BSc in genetics from the University of Nottingham. As well professor of evolution and infectious disease at Oxford, he is professor of infectious disease at the Royal Veterinary College. He also co-directs the Oxford Martin School Program for Pandemic Genomics. He has been awarded Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London, the Daiwa Adrian Prize, and the Mary Lyon Medal of the Genetics Society.

“It is a great honour to be elected a Royal Society Fellow, and humbling to join scientists past and present who inspired and influenced me as a student. I hope to use my position to better support and mentor the researchers of the future. Modern science is a team effort and I am deeply grateful to my collaborators and colleagues, without whom my work would not have been possible.”

- Professor Oliver Pybus FRS

Our congratulations also go to Old Member Susan Lea (Medicine 1987), who was also elected to the Royal Society this year. 

Susan is now Chief of the Center for Structural Biology and Senior Investigator at the National Cancer Institute in the United States.